AIBU to not allow the plasterer to play his radio?

[Shedbuilder]

I have a plasterer booked for four days of fiddly work all over the house, repairing the mess left by the so-called specialist fitters we paid a small fortune to install triple glazing —but I'm not going there!

We both work from home and around us we have other households with people working from home and noise-sensitive older people. It's a hot day and our windows are open because it's hot and to keep the air moving just in case of Covid. So when he arrived yesterday with his giant radio we nipped the problem in the bud early on and said sorry, both working from home, both need to be able to think and make calls without background noise — no radio. Which he glumly accepted. Today he's had a brief conversation with us about how tedious his work is without music in the background, so we suggested he use his phone and some earbuds. But no, he doesn't want to run out of data and he doesn't have earbuds.

We've ordered some cheap earbuds and we'll see if we can rig up some kind of free wifi connection for him tomorrow, but he's really huffy and I'm wondering whether we'll see him again tomorrow. He's a good plasterer and we've waited two months to get him. Are we being unreasonable?

Yes = we are unreasonable
No = we're no unreasonable

@Honeyroar

Trouble is, whether you’re being reasonable or not, you’re likely to be left with a half finished job and good tradesmen can be hard to find.

What, because poor diddums can't have his radio on?

YANBU OP, your house, your rules. After all, you ARE the customer. Particularly if you are WFH, someone else's music can be really distracting and annoying, more so if he's moving all over the house.

"He is a tradesman, he isn’t a mate doing you a massive favour by doing your plastering."

True and OP in NOT being unreasonable. However, if good plasterers have been hard to find, it might be better to come to a compromise with him.

@fairislecable

I have a friend who was having extensive decorating done and she specifically booked the guy who did not play music aloud. (Sometimes he used earbuds).

When she said this in a book club it was duly noted by all and many asked for his contact details.

Your decorator should think ahead as lots of possible clients may be put off if he only insists on his old technology.

On the other side, the oP is specifically saying that he is working in mnay rooms, is coming and going etc... Its never going to be calm and quiet for her to be able wfh wo being distirbed.

Fwiw, I've had people coming to the house fitting windows, flooring, boilers and whatnot. Theyve played msuic. Never at a volume that was an issue for us. (Even if it wasn't to our taste).

It like people are wanting people to come to their house, do some great job for them to to also make themselves invisible.

"YANBU OP, your house, your rules. After all, you ARE the customer. "

Yes, but if he leaves, she's not the customer any more is she.

He won’t be back tomorrow OP.

YABU

@WhatATimeToBeAlive yes exactly because of that. OP says he’s already being sniffy. Some traders really are that awkward. (the last one that was a flouncy pain at our house was indeed a plasterer!)

At the end of the day he has solid work booked for 2 months and he could just say screw it and leave. Plasterers are in v high demand and good ones that come recommended even higher so. Its 2 days out of a very weird year could you mute calls when you are not actually talking and pop some noise cancelling headphones on? I kind of agree that it is annoying that he is insisting but sounds like he is maybe excellent at his job but not all that techy re the WiFi comment, his radio that he has used for years is probably what he is comfortable with. He holds the power a bit because you need him a lot more than he needs your business.

I've just had 3 weeks work done to my house. I've found finding good tradesmen is very hard this year, they are all so busy. Mine had tea and coffee, bacon butties mid morning and no complaints about music. I'm currently laid up with a broken ankle, phoned to ask if there was any chance to fit me in with a job I would have been able to do myself without the ankle. He's rejigged his week and will be here on Thursday.

Sometimes it's worth investing a bit and you do get back.

@WhatATimeToBeAlive, do you mean this guy is also supposed to not be moving round the house so that he doesn't disturb the OP?!?
I mean Im sure he can. By not coming at all.

The OP wants a service. He is offering that. He is good at his job. She had to wait two months already.

Maybe the OP can tell him they are not a good fit, pay him for the work he has already done and try to find another plasterer who is more accomodating to her needs.
IN the mean time, she will also have to carry on living with the mess. And hope that the next person come before winter so she doesnt have to also wfh with windows open in autumn/winter..... It's going to be chilly... And does a job as good as that one. As posters have highlighted, good tradesmen are hard to come by.

I can’t use earbuds due to the placement of some of my piercings. My choice to get them and I so have noise cancelling headphones which are a godsend on trains/flights.

I used to play music on headphones when I worked in an office, every office I’ve worked in has insisted on dead silence for some reason; even when I was in an annexe on my own. Some people muttered about health & safety and said I wouldn’t hear the fire alarm. So o had to be miserable. And it was miserable, one of the big reasons I’ll never go back to office work unless I have no other choice.

I also don’t mind commercial radio; the chatter feels like I’m not alone.

@Polkadots2021 OP he is totally bizarre. Who doesn't have earphones? I don't, I have problems with my ears and can't wear them.

Not unreasonable at all. He’s a plasterer, not a DJ. If his job is that boring without music he should have chosen a different career. It’s really presumptuous to assume that anyone else in the house wants to listen to music, and even if they did, that they’d want to listen to your music. That said, if it on in a different part of the house, on low so I couldn’t hear it, and the doors were shut, I could cope with it, but nobody really actively enjoys listening to someone else’s tunes.

My chap is a builder with a stackable de Walt industrial radio. He only uses it if the house is empty, if the residents are out or if the house is that big he can play it and it won’t disturb them.

Where I live decent tradespeople can pick and choose what jobs they do and there's a long waiting list for the excellent ones.

I'd tolerate the radio for a job well done.

I understand the issue and think that you are being reasonable to offer alternatives.

YANBU.

I never understand why tradesmen need to blare music. It’s so easy to use a portable music player/phone these days. I’m a music lover, love playing it loud, but I always wear headphones because I don’t want to disturb my neighbours.

@Shedbuilder Thanks, SPF. I work in the construction industry myself and I know the ways of contracts and contractors. The fact that the fitting team turned up and told me in front of witnesses that they'd forgotten the item of equipment they use to carefully cut through plaster and plasterboard, but they wanted to go ahead anyway, was noted and the resulting serious damage photographed. We'll probably end up with a small claims case. I'd have told them not to go ahead until they got the piece of equipment. I think they were upfront with you and you let them go ahead.

@1FootInTheRave

Where I live decent tradespeople can pick and choose what jobs they do and there's a long waiting list for the excellent ones.

I'd tolerate the radio for a job well done.

Exactly the same where I live and in DD's city 100 miles away. Good tradesman told her in April that he'd "pencil her in" for October but he'd confirm nearer the date.

and we'll see if we can rig up some kind of free wifi connection for him tomorrow

I dont understand this, what do you need to rig up? Surely you just let him log into your WiFi?

Decent tradesmen are like hen's teeth round here.

We've had quite a bit of work done recently, don't care how much noise they make it's worth it to get the house sorted. Free flowing tea and biscuits to make sure they come back!

I think YABU but it's your house so your rules!

[quote ancientgran]**@Shedbuilder* Thanks, SPF. I work in the construction industry myself and I know the ways of contracts and contractors. The fact that the fitting team turned up and told me in front of witnesses that they'd forgotten the item of equipment they use to carefully cut through plaster and plasterboard, but they wanted to go ahead anyway, was noted and the resulting serious damage photographed. We'll probably end up with a small claims case.* I'd have told them not to go ahead until they got the piece of equipment. I think they were upfront with you and you let them go ahead.[/quote]
No, we had quite an argument about it —particularly when they said they couldn't come back and fit the windows till September unless we allowed them to go ahead that day. There were calls to head office etc. I was assured that the damage would be minimal, in writing. It wasn't. But as I said in my OP, that's another story.

Well tough shit, he's being paid to work not go to a disco.
My neighbours would not tolerate music all day and if I was working from home it would be very distracting. There is no reason why he can't use his earbuds.
We recently had workmen doing up the clinic next to mine (NHS clinic) and they had loud thumping music going all day.
I had to call their manager and tell him we were seeing patients with life limiting conditions and having difficult conversations with them all day and none of us wanted to hear that all day long before they would turn it down.

Flashbacks to the plasterers who sounded like they were having a mini rave when plastering our bathroom, with awful singing along to boot 😫 while we were wfh. The plumber listened to the radio but at a level we couldn't hear from other rooms which was no bother at all.

I think if you had let him use the radio in the first place and it was too loud then fair enough but to stop him using it at all was a bit much.

My grandparents were like this, wouldn’t allow the radio on, didn’t like workmen chatting amongst themselves, wanted them to work in silence and then wondered why workmen wouldn’t return to do another job. 😬